Tax Trouble Closes Restaurant In Bath

Diners in a popular Bath restaurant were interrupted yesterday morning by state agents whopadlocked the establishment for alleged failure to pay back taxes of $291,905.

Officials of the state Department of Revenue and the state attorney general's office, along with the Northampton County sheriff's office, executed a tax lien at the Turn In Restaurant on Route 512 at Barrall Avenue, said Jack Lewis, spokesman for the attorney general's office.

Northampton County Deputy Sheriff Vincent Meixsell said about 20 patrons were in the restaurant at 10 a.m. when officials arrived. He said the customers were allowed to finish their meals before the restaurant was closed.

The agents inventoried the restaurant's assets and padlocked the building, Lewis said. A notice on the front door announces the tax lien and warns against any attempts to remove property from the premises.

If the taxes aren't paid, Lewis said, the restaurant and its contents will be sold at sheriff's sale.

Lewis said Department of Revenue records show that restaurant owner Dennis C. Silfies of Bath failed to turn over $277,520 in sales tax revenues collected from 1979 through 1986 to the state. Based on the state's 6 percent sales tax rate, the lien suggests that the Turn In Restaurant had at least $4.6 million in gross sales during that period.

Also delinquent is $14,385 in employee withholding tax, Lewis said. This is the state tax an employer deducts from employee's paychecks.

Lewis said the state Department of Revenue has been in contact with Silfies about the back taxes since July 1986. He said the department decided not to move against the restaurant at that time because Silfies' attorney said he was in negotiations to sell the business.

When the sale fell through, Lewis said, the Department of Revenue contacted the attorney general's office to collect the taxes.

"It's very rare that we go in and close a building," Lewis said. "This is more or less a last resort."

Allentown attorney Karl E. Friend, identified by Lewis as Silfies' lawyer, said yesterday that he would have no immediate comment on the state's action. He said he is meeting with Silfies today to determine what action, if any, will be taken.